U.S. Constitution

From Maine to Hawaii, Americans send people to Washington, D.C., to be their representatives -- to cast votes that represent the will of the people who elected them to do the job.

But now, as the House of Representatives moves toward approving one of the most sweeping pieces of domestic legislation in U.S. history, critics are fuming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to usher through a health care bill... without a vote.

Pelosi, they say, is thumbing her nose at a cherished, basic principle of democracy for the sake of a legislative win....

A congressional analyst says House Democrats would be violating the Constitution if they attempt to approve the Senate healthcare bill without voting on it.

The Constitution requires that a bill has to pass both the House and Senate to become law, but House Democrats are planning to simply "deem" that the House has passed the Senate healthcare bill without members even voting on it, and then send it to President Obama to sign.

New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who chairs the House Rules Committee, may use a "self-executing rule" to say the Senate bill is approved by the House, even without a formal up or down vote on the measure. The House would then only vote on the "reconciliation" corrections to the bill...

Virginia is poised to pass a law that says residents cannot be compelled to purchase health insurance they don't want.

A bill that has been passed by Virginia's Senate and House of Delegates is designed to challenge President Obama's national healthcare reform plan. It states that mandates should not be imposed on people for health insurance.

The chief sponsor of the measure, Delegate Bob Marshall, notes that Congress has never required individuals or businesses to directly purchase any good or service, and he believes it is unconstitutional to force every legal resident of the U.S. to purchase health insurance...

(CNSNews.com) - The nation's top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va. — a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm — to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

The statement emphatically says no to the type of "change" pushed by political leaders who ignore the Constitution's limits on government power.

“In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics,” says an excerpt from the statement. “The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist.

(CNSNews.com) – The White House on Tuesday dismissed the concerns of 13 state attorneys general about the constitutionality of a clause in the Senate health care bill that singles out Nebraska for special treatment when it comes to covering the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage.

While stating that he had not read a letter from the attorneys general about the issue, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs nonetheless told CNSNews.com, “I do not believe that anybody has legitimate constitutional concerns about the legislation.”

To ensure Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson’s (D) support, Democratic Senate leaders included a provision in the health care legislation to permanently pick up the cost of expanding the number of patients on Medicaid in Nebraska. The bill also covers the full cost of Medicaid expansion for the other 49 states, but only for the first three years...

A constitutional historian says American courts would have to overturn their last 80 years of jurisprudence to uphold the constitutionality of the healthcare bill in Congress.

Thirteen Republican attorneys general are threatening to file a lawsuit against the Democrats' healthcare bill if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) refuse to remove a provision being called the "Cornhusker Kickback" -- the nearly $100 million Medicaid deal Democratic Senator Ben Nelson secured for his home state of Nebraska. Ostensibly, the deal was in exchange for Nelson's vote -- the 60th of 60 needed -- favoring the legislation. As reported earlier, the senator's decision has angered many Nebraskans.

In a letter sent last week, the 13 attorneys general argue the provision is "constitutionally flawed" and violates the U.S. Constitution's protection against "arbitrary" legislation.

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that gives Congress the power to compel individuals to buy health insurance.

“It isn’t there. It isn’t there,” Hatch said last week at the U.S. Capitol, when CNSNews.com asked where in the Constitution Congress finds authority to create an individual mandate to purchase health insurance.

CNSNews.com talked to Hatch, a longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, while he was on his way to take part in a series of procedural votes on the Senate’s health-care reform bill last Wednesday that paved the way for its eventual passage. The votes included a constitutional “point of order” that Republicans raised, challenging the constitutionality of an individual mandate...

In exchange for Nelson’s critical 60th vote to cut off debate early Monday morning, Sen. Harry Reid agreed that the federal government would pick up 100 percent of the tab for the planned Medicaid expansion in Nebraska – forever.

“Legally, I think other states can make a constitutional challenge,” Graham said in an appearance on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning...

CNSNews.com - When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he “would have to check the specific sections” but said that it was like making people “sign up for the draft."

“Specifically where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance?” CNSNews.com asked Reed.

“Let me see,” said Reed. “I would have to check the specific sections, so I’ll have to get back to you on the specific section. But it is not unusual that the Congress has required individuals to do things, like sign up for the draft and do many other things too, which I don’t think are explicitly contained [in the Constitution]. It gives Congress a right to raise an army, but it doesn’t say you can take people and draft them.

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) says he is “not aware” of the Constitution giving Congress the authority to make individuals purchase health insurance, as the health care bills in both the House and Senate require.

When CNSNews.com asked whether the Constitution gives Congress the authority to make Americans buy health insurance, Sen. Akaka said: “I’m not aware of that, let me put it that way. But what we’re trying to do is to provide for people who have needs and that’s where the accessibility comes in, and one of the goals that we’re trying to present here is to make it accessible.”

When asked if there was a specific part of the Constitutoin that gives Congress the authority to make people buy health insurance, Akaka said: “Not in particular with health insurance. It’s not covered in that respect.